| Portsmouth | Conservative |
| Brent | Labour |
| Camden | Labour |
| Manchester | Labour |
| Plymouth | NOC |
| Hounslow | Labour |
| Doncaster | Labour |
| Norwich | Labour |
| Stockton on Tees | NOC |
| Sunderland | Labour |
| Islington | Labour |
| Lambeth | Labour |
| Wandsworth | Conservative |
| Barnet | Conservative |
Who are the potential killers now, John? And I'll bet when the DCLG release even more names that Labour councils predominate.
Also, can anyone explain why the government should face a £600m bill for correcting this danger? Why should not these councils dip into their own very substantial (£19bn from CIPFA) reserves to pay for it? Is this not exactly what council reserves are for?
11 comments:
And whose Brave new world began with the NHS and the "tower blocks"?
right-writes
Anon: I have hazy childhood memories (1950s/60s) of Labour and Conservatives competing to announce the completion of x number of housing "units". Tower blocks were the answer - but in those days, the council residents allowed into them were screened for suitability and regular checks made to see that the property was being looked after properly. The loss of community from verticalising wasn't really a factor, compared with clean, dry accommodation and an inside loo.
Labour had their hands on the tiller when Plymouth's housing stock was 'upgraded'.
I can not condemn the handing over of council housing to private management, and I don't think that I can blame those councils for insulating them - with adequate scrutiny.
My biggest gripe is that we have seen an explosion in departments and salaries for Labour-created apparatchiks, with no corresponding accountability. Maybe, if we made them pay out of their six figure salaries for their bad decision making, they would take more care in the future.
But that is the state of affairs in the majority of UK cities.
From an ignorant over in America:
Were the residents of Grenfell government-subsidized low income renters, welfare recipients, a mix of both? Are tower blocks equivalent to what we Yanks refer to as the"Projects"?
Who knows - some good may come of it all . . . if the news gets as far as North Africa (or even frogland), the 'refugees' might hesitate!?!?
@anonymous09.04
The block was built by the local authority (council) to provide support social rented housing, then known as council houses.
This was aimed at providing low cost decent rented homes for people on lower income as part of a social need, rather than for profit. So yes, a lot like the projects.
In the 1980s central government introduced right to buy legislation allowing longstanding tenants in council homes to buy their property at discounted rates. Some of the flats(apartments) in the block will probably have thus been privately owned, but the majority will have been retained by the council for social housing, as tower block flats were never as popular for tenants to buy.
Over the past couple of decades the councils have vested their social housing into management groups with an element of tenant participation on a not for profit basis. Such a group managed and operated the Grenfell Tower, with, interestingly, the newly elected Labour MP as one of the council's representative on the Board.
Like most State run activities in the U.K., it is messy with unclear boundaries and lots of opportunity for deniability for all parties.
It also appears that some of the council tenants were actually living elsewhere and sub-letting the flats illegally. There is a massive immigrant population in this corner of our green and pleasant land and the cultural norms are somewhat different
Someone said, never waste a crisis. As these tower blocks are cleared for refurbishment, it's an ideal time to check the status of the decanted people.
@ b Only with political will and there is none. All immigration preplanned, and we are controlled by extremely harsh laws to ensure we don't protest. EDL prosecuted at every turn and kettled if they do march. A year in jail for some hapless man who placed bacon outside and around door handles of a mosque.(he died in jail BTW)
@b
Our government has already stated that it will not be checking on the residency (immigration) status of any person in Grenfell. £10 says that there will be lots of them!
"Well, the government haven't politicised the faulty tower blocks" Not half they haven't, try watching this the whole way through,the eye openers come after about half way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EexW8ds524
Quite astounding on LBC this morning. A Momentum leader insisted this was per-meditated murder. And when the host suggested she was saying 'the council, you are saying, set out to deliberately kill the occupants of its housing. On purpose?'
The Momentum person replied, "I have a law degree and this is definitely murder."
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